Malcolm Turnbull's popularity hits new low: Newspoll

EVEN before Parliament is sworn in today, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's popularity has hit a new low, leaving the Coalition's standing deadlocked with the Labor Opposition.

It is the first Newspoll since the Coalition barely managed to cling to power, published in The Australian.

Just 34% of Australians were satisfied with the PM's performance, the lowest number since he toppled Tony Abbott last year.

That's also down six points since the eve of the July 2 election.

And as less Australians feel satisfied with his performance, more are feeling dissatisified, with 52% unhappy with the way Mr Turnbull is doing his job at the moment.

That means Mr Turnbull's approval rating or "net satisfaction rating" is now lower than that of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, a first since he took power.

The Australian reports it is only the third time a government has suffered a fall in its primary vote immediately after an election

The "losing" of a Newspoll to his opponent is significant because when Mr Turnbull announced he would challenge Mr Abbott last year, one of his justifications was his predecessor's poor performance in the polls.

At the time he said:

The one thing that is clear about our current situation is the trajectory.

We have lost 30 Newspolls in a row.

It is clear that the people have made up their mind about Mr Abbott's leadership.

According to the Newspoll results, the top priorities for Australians are for the government to deal with the country's debt as number one.

Coming in equal second is the sorting out of the same-sex marriage plebiscite, and the strong protection of the nation's borders.

The restoring of the Australian Building Construction Commission -- and the justification the PM used to call an double-dissolution -- was a "very low priority", Newspoll found.

The result means that on two-party preferred terms, the Coalition and Labor would be tied at 50-50.

The Coalition won the 2016 election with 50.4%, with Labor taking 49.6%.

Mr Turnbull remains the more popular of the two party leaders to be Prime Minister.